The World’s Most Popular AI Chatbots in 2025: User Numbers, Trends, and Insights

AI chatbots have become a real part of daily life... With hundreds of millions of people using them every day, the competition between chatbot makers has reached a new level.

Here we explore the leading AI chatbots in the world right now, highlighting how many people actually use them, and digging into the different strengths, challenges, and curiosities that set each apart.

[All data here is from publicly available sources as of mid-2025.]

ChatGPT leads the global AI chatbot market with about 800 million weekly users, thanks to its versatility and deep Microsoft integration. Its ability to handle everything from conversation to complex tasks cements its status as the most widely used AI assistant worldwide.

Google Gemini is quickly closing the gap, reaching 400 million monthly active users by leveraging multimodal features and strong ties to Android and Google Search. Its growth shows how integration with existing platforms drives adoption.

Meta AI is seamlessly embedded in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook, giving over 700 million people monthly access to AI directly inside their favorite social apps. 

Perplexity AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude have each found success with specific audiences. Perplexity is popular with researchers and students for its reliable, cited answers and real-time web integration. Microsoft Copilot boosts productivity in Office apps and Windows, focusing on drafting, summarizing, and automating business tasks. Claude stands out for its focus on enterprise safety and compliance, offering accurate, context-aware responses favored by businesses with strict standards. Meanwhile, DeepSeek and Ernie Bot lead in China, with DeepSeek growing in nearby markets as well.

ChatGPT (OpenAI): Still the Undisputed Leader

When it comes to artificial intelligence chatbots, ChatGPT from OpenAI remains the name on almost everyone’s lips, and the numbers backing its success are simply staggering. In the spring of 2025, OpenAI reported that ChatGPT had reached around 800 million active users every week, with more than 120 million people turning to it each day. To put this into perspective, the website alone saw over 4.5 billion visits in March 2025, and this doesn’t even count all the people who access ChatGPT through Microsoft Office apps, Windows, or the countless integrations available across other platforms.

This scale of usage is nearly unmatched in the digital world and is partly thanks to how easy it is to start using ChatGPT—anyone with internet access can try it, and for many, it has become a regular companion for school, work, or simply satisfying curiosity. People use it to draft documents, summarize emails, learn about new topics, code, or even translate languages. In businesses, it is rapidly becoming the default “second brain,” handling everything from customer support chats to generating marketing copy or writing internal reports.

The pace of adoption has been equally remarkable. It took ChatGPT only five days to hit one million users after launch, and from there, it just kept growing, cementing itself as the fastest-growing consumer software application in history. Today, its mix of conversational ability, up-to-date information, and seamless integration into Microsoft’s products has allowed ChatGPT to set the standard for what an AI chatbot can achieve in the real world.

Google Gemini: The Fast Climber

Google Gemini has become one of the most significant stories in AI, particularly because of its lightning-fast growth and ambitious capabilities. In May 2025, Google publicly revealed that Gemini was already serving around 400 million monthly active users. While that’s not quite at ChatGPT’s level yet, it’s a massive number that demonstrates just how many people now rely on AI for their daily questions and needs.

What’s unique about Gemini is its “multimodal” nature, meaning it doesn’t just handle text—it can understand images, audio, even snippets of code or video, making it a highly versatile digital assistant. For many Android smartphone owners, Gemini is now built right into their devices, so accessing its powers is as simple as speaking or typing into Google’s search bar. This ease of access, combined with Gemini’s ability to bring in the freshest information from the internet in real time, has helped it catch on quickly, especially among students, professionals, and anyone who spends a lot of time in the Google ecosystem.

Gemini’s rapid growth is also helped by Google’s efforts to put the chatbot in places people already use daily, whether that’s inside Google Search, in Gmail, or on Android phones. As a result, Gemini’s influence is growing month by month, and it continues to set new records for the speed at which an AI assistant can gain a loyal audience.

Meta AI: Social and Everywhere

Meta AI is another name that has exploded onto the global scene, and it is especially interesting because of the way it rides on top of the world’s most widely used social platforms. By the middle of 2025, Meta AI was being used by more than 700 million people every month across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook itself. The reach here is phenomenal: at any given moment, hundreds of millions of users can ask for help drafting messages, creating AI-generated images, or finding quick answers—all without ever leaving their favorite chat or social app.

Unlike some chatbots, Meta AI is built to blend in naturally with everyday conversations, often popping up just when you need it in the middle of a group chat or social thread. Its underlying technology, based on Meta’s own Llama 3 models, allows it to keep up with a wide variety of tasks, from casual banter to more advanced creative work, and all at remarkable speed. Many users describe Meta AI as “invisible but essential,” because it doesn’t require you to go to a separate website or app. The numbers reveal the extent of its integration into people’s lives, as Meta aims to reach a billion active AI users before the end of the year.

Perplexity AI: The Researcher’s Choice

While not as huge as the giants above, Perplexity AI has carved out an influential niche, particularly among those who value reliable, up-to-date information with clear sources. By May 2025, Perplexity had around 15 million monthly active users, which might sound small in comparison, but its impact is multiplied by its unique hybrid “search plus chat” approach. The platform is visited over 150 million times each month, reflecting just how much people value its ability to answer questions with references and real-time web results.

Perplexity’s rise has caught the attention of researchers, students, and anyone who needs trustworthy, verifiable answers rather than just conversation. Its user community might be more specialized, but its model has inspired many larger chatbots to rethink how they present information and cite their sources. In fact, Perplexity is often credited with raising the bar for transparency and usefulness in AI-powered search.

Microsoft Copilot: Productivity Meets AI

Microsoft Copilot represents a different side of the AI chatbot boom, one focused not so much on conversation as on productivity and getting real work done. By early 2025, Copilot had grown to around 20 to 30 million weekly users, with its peak days seeing up to 36 million active people. This audience is drawn mainly from the enormous number of workers and organizations that rely on Microsoft’s suite of software, such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Copilot’s main strength is its deep integration into these familiar tools. When someone needs to draft a report, analyze a spreadsheet, or summarize a meeting, Copilot is there in the sidebar, ready to help. The idea is not to replace the user, but to offer a powerful assistant that handles repetitive or complex tasks, saving time and reducing errors. Even so, the journey hasn’t been all smooth—adoption has been a bit slower than Microsoft hoped, showing that even with strong technology, changing workplace habits can take time.

DeepSeek Chat: The Chinese Open-Source Star

DeepSeek Chat is a fascinating example of how regional preferences and open-source principles can create their own kind of success story. By April 2025, DeepSeek had reached nearly 97 million monthly active users, with a particularly strong presence in China, but also expanding quickly in places like India and Indonesia. DeepSeek stands out by offering its technology openly, allowing developers and researchers worldwide to study, adapt, and improve its models.

Its openness and compliance with local regulations have made DeepSeek the chatbot of choice for millions who can’t or don’t want to use Western services like ChatGPT. It has also fostered a vibrant developer community that helps the tool evolve quickly, making it one of the most rapidly advancing chatbots in the world. For those interested in transparency and community-driven technology, DeepSeek represents a compelling alternative to the big, closed platforms.

Grok (xAI): The Edgy Challenger

Grok, from xAI—the AI company headed by Elon Musk—has built a loyal following mostly within the X (formerly Twitter) platform. By the latest estimates in April 2025, Grok had attracted about 35 million monthly active users. What makes Grok unique isn’t just its integration with X, but its intentionally less filtered, more opinionated personality. Users come to Grok for real-time takes on breaking news, witty commentary, and answers that sometimes push the boundaries of what’s considered “neutral.”

This distinct approach has made Grok especially popular among tech enthusiasts and followers of Musk’s ventures, who appreciate its fast, up-to-date, and sometimes irreverent responses. While Grok’s audience is smaller than some rivals, its influence is amplified by its close connection to the fast-moving world of social media.

Claude (Anthropic): Enterprise and Safety Focus

Claude, from Anthropic, targets a specific audience with its emphasis on safety, accuracy, and enterprise readiness. As of early 2025, Claude was serving just under 19 million monthly active users. This number, while modest in the context of global giants, reflects a dedicated and growing customer base among businesses and organizations that value reliability and compliance.

Claude’s claim to fame is its so-called “constitutional AI” design, which is meant to ensure that the chatbot is not just helpful, but also harmless and honest. It is often chosen by companies that require trustworthy answers, long memory for ongoing conversations, and robust privacy guarantees. While it may not be the first choice for casual chatting or creative play, Claude is winning over users who need an AI that can handle sensitive tasks and follow strict guidelines.

Ernie Bot (Baidu): The Giant of China

Ernie Bot, developed by Baidu, continues to be the mainstay of conversational AI in China. Although Baidu hasn’t provided a precise user update for 2025, the last confirmed count showed more than 300 million people had tried the service, and the company now reports over 200 million daily queries. Since April 2025, when Baidu made Ernie Bot completely free to use, its adoption has soared even further, making it an essential digital assistant for a vast and diverse user base.

Ernie Bot’s appeal is grounded in its deep understanding of the Chinese language and culture, plus its seamless integration with Baidu’s many services. It’s increasingly present in schools, local government, and public services, reflecting how chatbots in some regions are not just tools for curiosity, but critical infrastructure for information, education, and communication.

Market Snapshot: The Bigger Picture

Bringing all these stories together, we see a world where nearly a billion people interact with AI chatbots in some way—a figure that continues to grow every month. The industry itself is now worth about $15.6 billion in 2025, and analysts expect it could triple in size before the end of the decade. What’s fascinating is not just the raw numbers, but the diversity of approaches: from ChatGPT’s worldwide reach and Gemini’s technical ambition, to regional leaders like DeepSeek and Ernie Bot, and specialized players such as Perplexity and Claude.

It’s also clear that how “users” are counted can vary a lot. Some companies report daily actives, others weekly or monthly, and still others use the number of website visits or app downloads, making direct comparisons a challenge. But one trend is unmistakable: AI chatbots are on their way to becoming as ordinary—and as necessary—as search engines and email.

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